Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel on Thursday, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris. The sample, the size of a grain of rice, was placed into a secure container, marking the end of the mission, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the plant. It is being transported to a glove box for size and weight measurements before being sent to outside laboratories for detailed analyses over the coming months.

A piece of the radioactive fuel left from the meltdown of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been retrieved from the site using a remote-controlled robot. Investigators used the robot's fishing-rod-like arm to clip and collect a tiny piece of radioactive material from one of the plant's three damaged reactors – the first time such a feat has been achieved. Should it prove suitable for testing, scientists hope the sample will yield information that will help determine how to decommission the plant. The plant's manager, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), has said the sample was collected from the surface of a mound of molten debris that sits at the bottom of the Unit 2 reactor's primary containment vessel. The "telesco" robot, with its frontal tongs still holding the sample, returned to its enclosed container for safe storage after workers in full hazmat gear pulled it out of the containment vessel on Saturday.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited a Fukushima coastal city to support the local fishing industry after China and South Korea raised the alarm over water discharge began from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Images taken by miniature drones from deep inside a badly damaged reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant show displaced control equipment and misshapen materials but leave many questions unanswered, underscoring the daunting task of decommissioning the plant. The 12 photos released by the plant's operator are the first from inside the main structural support called the pedestal in the hardest-hit No. 1 reactor's primary containment vessel, an area directly under the reactor's core. Officials had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and melted nuclear fuel which dripped there when the plant's cooling systems were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Earlier attempts with robots were unable to reach the area.

Eerie new drone footage has for the first time revealed the extent of the damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant 13 years on from its meltdown. The plant's operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, released 12 photos from inside the site, which are the first ever images from inside the main structural support called the pedestal in the hardest-hit reactor's primary containment vessel, an area directly under the reactor's core. Officials had long hoped to reach the area to examine the core and melted nuclear fuel which dripped there when the plant's cooling systems were damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The high-definition color images captured by the drones show brown objects with various shapes and sizes dangling from various locations in the pedestal. Parts of the control-rod drive mechanism, which controls the nuclear chain reaction, and other equipment attached to the core were dislodged by the drones. The Fukushima disaster was one of the world's most devastating nuclear mishaps The plant's operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, or TEPCO, released 12 photos from inside the site TEPCO officials said they were unable to tell from the images whether the dangling lumps were melted fuel or melted equipment without obtaining other data such as radiation levels.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. halted its investigation of the inside of the containment vessel of the No. 1 reactor at its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on Wednesday. The move came after an issue was found during preparation work for the display of data such as radiation levels from dosimeters inside underwater robots to be used in the survey. The preparations began at noon the same day and were halted around two hours later. Tepco said that it will resume the survey once measures to resolve the issue are taken. In the survey, which will continue until around August, Tepco aims to take pictures of melted nuclear fuel debris and other deposits using six types of underwater robots to record their locations and thickness in water that has accumulated at the bottom of the containment vessel.

Nearly a decade after the three meltdowns at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, plans are underway to finally remove nuclear fuel debris from the three reactors. But in order to remove it, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco), the operator of the plant, needs to ensure there is a place to store the debris once it is retrieved. This is thought to be the reason why the government is rushing to give the green light to releasing tritium-laced water piling up at the plant into the Pacific -- to give room for the storage of fuel debris. But removing the fuel debris -- a crucial step in the decommissioning process -- is an enormous task on its own, with measures that need to be resolved emerging one after another. At a three-day online meeting of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan from Sept. 16, an official from the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID) who is in charge of technical development regarding the decommissioning of the Fukushima plant, explained the plan, or the lack thereof, to remove the debris at reactor No. 2. "We will consider what kind of measures to take, comparing tactics and developing techniques," the official said, with a hint of frustration at not being able to come up with a specific way yet.

The owner of the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 power plant is trying this week to touch melted fuel at the bottom of the plant for the first time since the disaster almost eight years ago, a tiny but key step toward retrieving the radioactive material amid a ¥21.5 trillion ($195 billion) cleanup effort. Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. will on Wednesday insert a robot developed by Toshiba Corp. to make contact with material believed to contain melted fuel inside the containment vessel of the unit 2 reactor, one of three units that melted down after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. "We plan to confirm if we can move or lift the debris or if it crumbles," Joji Hara, a spokesman for Tepco said by phone Friday. Tepco doesn't plan to collect samples during the survey. The country is seeking to clean up the Fukushima disaster, the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl, which prompted a mass shutdown of its reactors.

More than six years after the core meltdowns triggered by March 2011 mega-quake and tsunami, Tokyo Electric said Saturday that the robot probing reactor 3 at the defunct Fukushima No. 1 power plant had likely spotted fuel debris for the first time at the bottom of its primary containment vessel. Some of the debris looks like rocks and sand, and was accompanied by scaffolding and other objects from the reactor that had formed a pile about a meter high. On Friday, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. announced that the same robot had found what appeared to be melted fuel at the bottom of the pressure vessel, which holds the core. On Saturday, images released by the utility showed black, lava-like objects discovered by the so-called mini sunfish robot. "It's natural to assume that the debris melted and dropped," said a Tepco official who briefed reporters.

A Japanese robot has begun probing the radioactive water at Fukushima's nuclear reactor. The marine robot, nicknamed the'little sunfish', is on a mission to study structural damage and find fuel inside the three reactors of the devastated plant. Experts said remote-controlled bots are key to finding fuel at the dangerous site, which has likely melted and been submerged by highly radioactive water. A Japanese robot has begun probing the radioactive water at Fukushima's nuclear reactor. An underwater robot has captured images and other data inside Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on its first day of work.

The location and condition of the fuel in the three reactors hit by core meltdowns is critical information for Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., which runs the plant. Removing the fuel debris is considered the most difficult part of decommissioning the complex. Unit 3 has the highest level of water inside at 6 meters. The fuel debris inside is presumed to have melted through its pressure vessel and settled at the bottom of its primary containment vessel. "Until today, no one has seen the situation inside reactor 3," said Tsutomu Takeuchi, senior manager at Toshiba's Fukushima Restoration and Fuel Cycle Project Engineering Department.